Overweight guppy?

This may sound silly, but this is the biggest fish in my tank (girth wise). I'm worried that one day it's not going to be able to swim anymore. I don't know if it's constipated, or what.



What do I do? Is this normal?

~Jynx

 

LOL, looks like you've got yourself a pregnant female guppy. Perfectly normal. She'll drop her fry and if your lucky a few might survive. If you want to improve the fry chance of survival, get some floating grassy type of plants for them to hide in because momma will try to eat them, as will any other fish in the tank.

For a few bucks you can get a breeding cage that you place mama in and prevents her from getting at the fry to eat them. Odds are, she will probably keep getting pregnant if you have her with males, so she may drop fry as ofter as once every 30-45 days.

 

she's been pregnant for a LOOOOOOOOONG time then, she's been like that for almost a year.... at least 9 months.

~Jynx

 

oooooooohhhhhh....then no, that is very UN-normal...LOL, sorry If it is constipation, you can try and turn the heat of your tank up a bit, that seems to help. I would remover her from your tank into a quarantine, though. Just in case it is something communicable.

I wish I knew more about fish disease, but I unfortunately don't Lots of great peeps here though that should be able to help you. Sorry I can't be of more help.

 

The cause for her constipation maybe that you are giving her a too high of a protein diet.

 

I give all the fish pea's once a week, and believe me, she's right in there with the rest of them. I also give my pleco algae tablets once or twice a week as a supplement, and the others, including this one are all over it when I do, or when they realize it's in there.

She seems happy, no popping eyes, nothing abnormal, other than the size of her belly. I was just wondering if it could be something else. I've never seen any fry, and she looks more like a puffer fish in one of the pic's I took of her 'cuz she's so... round.

~jynx

 

It's possible the fry all got eaten and they can be pregnant for a long time. Although, it's not uncommon for livebearers to just get fat.

 

I was hoping that she's just pleasantly plump, she seems happy... so I guess I'll just leave her as she is for now.

~jynx

Ok, so, I separated my guppy into a breeding net, just to see if maybe portion control would help. And... 2 days later she's got something coming from it, it looks like the head of fry... it's been there, and looks like it's very slowly coming out for about 2 hours now. Is that normal? How long does it normally take for the birthing process?

~Jynx

 

That is an unusually long time, but sometimes if the fry is dead, or extra fat itself it can slow things down....Once she passes this one, even if it is dead, the others should pop out faster. Sometimes they have a few, then none for awhile, then have more over several hours, up to a day wouldn't surprise me.

 

Do you have a picture you could post?

 

This was yesterday... it's blurry due to taking it through the breeding net.


From today, still poking out there, but no fry yet.

~Jynx

EDIT: Compared to the pics I originally posted, she's gotten bigger!

Still there and still no fry.

~Jynx

 

What are the exact water conditions? If they're good, you might need to let her out of the net into the tank. She looks like she's holding them for some reason and water chemistry/stress is a big cause of that.

 

ok... There is no amonia, the nitrates are about 20, nitrites are .5, these are actually the norm for this tank. We have hard water, the alkalinity and ph are high, and that's normal for the tank too. It's been like that since we started stocking it. I think I found one at the bottom of the net, but it's dead.

~Jynx

 

I hope your guppy makes it through this even though the fry might not.

 

SUCCESS!!!! SHE HAD ONE! I saw it, it's alive!

~Jynx

 

So she was pregnant.

 

Mastershake was right! I just thought that was an unusually long time for a fish to be pregnant.

I keep going in there and looking now and I'm sure I'm making the rest of my poor fish paranoid. But I can't help it. With the labor (is that what you call it when it's concerning a fish?) lasting for SOOOOO long, all sorts of things were going through my mind as to what could possibly be wrong! I'm a first time fry parent I guess, little nervous, little anxious, whole lot excited right now!

~Jynx

 

make sure you have something to feed them, or they will be your first unsuccessful batch.

 

Oh my goodness... I think one of my platys had a baby too... there's a fry outside the net, dodging tetras left and right, then hid in the plants. The guppy fry had no color and was quite a bit smaller than this one. The one I just saw is a beautiful gold color.

~Jynx

 

Sounds like the way to find and catch him would be to remove the fish to a covered container filled with tank water, then the search for him can begin with removing decor and if need be the substrate - just keep the stuff wet (another container with tank water).

 

I don't think mama's going to make it, she's looking incredibly exhausted right now, and still only the one baby.

~Jynx

 

After I posted last night, I took a shower and when I got out, mama was dead. *sigh* I found the lone guppy fry, and it was dead too.

~jynx

 

Sorry to hear about your guppys
Maybe she had too many fry in her to handle.

 

Sorry for your loss, it's always sad to hear about a loved pet dying, especially when giving birth, maybe it had something to do with her being pregnant for so long, anyway it wasn't your fault so don't feel to bad, these things happen.

 

:'( We're sorry that you lost them.